Can you hear the silence?
Can you see the dark?
Can you fix the broken?
Can you feel, can you feel my heart?

Can you help the hopeless?
Well, I'm begging on my knees
Can you save my bastard soul?
Will you ache for me?

I'm sorry brother
So sorry lover
Forgive me father
I love you mother

Can you hear the silence?
Can you see the dark?
Can you fix the broken?
Can you feel my heart?
Can you feel my heart?
Can you feel my heart?
Can you feel my heart?

I'm scared to get close and I hate being alone
I long for that feeling to not feel at all
The higher I get, the lower I'll sink
I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim
I'm scared to get close and I hate being alone
I long for that feeling to not feel at all
The higher I get, the lower I'll sink
I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim
I'm scared to get close and I hate being alone
I long for that feeling to not feel at all
The higher I get, the lower I'll sink
I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim

Can you feel my heart?, can you hear the silence?
Can you see the dark?
Can you fix the broken?
Can you feel, can you feel my heart?

11 Comments

Anyways, while hipsters thing the lyrics "The higher I get the lower I sink" meaning getting literally high, I believe it means that quote that everyone just loves "Step forward 5 times, jump back 8." Which is basically saying every time you make it some where you end up being worse than you were the first time.

The way I take the whole song (which is pretty self explanatory). Is that you're alone, you like peoples company but when you get close to someone, it ends up making you feel worse.

i agree with you. correct me if i'm wrong but can it be about suicide? oliver does mention the darkness and silence. when you're dead (obviously) you can't see or hear anything. also, "im sorry brothers, so sorry lover, forgive me father, i love you mother." is apologizing for him being dead. many feel guilty for it.

Galyy of course it can, I can totally see it that way, and yes Kuri, but the hipsters think of it as its cool or something, it can honestly be whatever people want it to be, thats the great thing about music.

My InterpretationI actually think this song means much more than only drugs and alcohol.
It's like a shout from the inside trying to escape from oneself.
"Forgive me father. I love you mother" Is like a state trying to say that (s)he regrets all the bad decisions made that hurt others (something quite common when we feel we're a failure)
I think the lyrics are asking for help, asking for a route of escape, a way of change.
Also:
"I'm scared to get close and I hate being alone
I long for that feeling to not feel at all
The higher I get, the lower I'll sink
I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim"
That part I think it's more about the fact that we feel hopeless and helpless and without strength, meaning at the end that our mind - the negative thoughts and the demons we rise - are, usually, way more powerful than our will to change because they are scary and unknown. It's like a way of saying that we he prefers to feel numb, but that also means he will stay alone with the demons inside his mind.

General CommentI Think this is directed in general to the people around him. To me it is definitely a song about addiction. "Can you see the dark, can you fix the broken, Can you help the hopeless"- are all lines implying the life of an addict asking for help. "Will you wait for me?"- He's asking anybody to stick by him until he can get clean and sort out the never ending problems of addiction. "I'm sorry brothers, so sorry lover, forgive me father, I love you mother"- he's saying to the important people in his life "I'm sorry that is is where my addiction took me, and Ive done the the horrible things, youve tried to help me and I love you but I'm still me. " I'm scared to get close, and I hate being alone"- correlates to the issue of having so many problems and character defects of an addict which prevents one from perusing an intemet relationship but still wanting and needing affection, as well as addiction being a lonely disease. "I long for that feeling to not feel at all"- obviously speaking of being high, hiding his feelings within the drug, making himself numb to his problems. "The higher I get, the lower I sink"- the higher he gets and The more he uses, the lower he goes into the depths of his addiction, the worse he gets over time of getting high. "I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim"- he can't stop using, he has tried and the addict inside has over powered all his attempts to stay clean. And finally " can you feel my heart?"- he's asking "can you sympathize for me? Can you see that I can't help it? My demons can swim for god sake, I can't do this alone, feel for me. Please" that's just my take on the song. Im a heroin addict and it completely speaks to me

My Interpretationthis song is about how oli's drug addiction was getting worse as he sing the higher i get which means him getting high off drugs the lower i sing means he is sink lower with everyone he knows when he say im sorry brother so sorry love forgive me father i love you mother he is apologizing to his brother for ruin his friendship with him because of the drugs so sorry lover he is apologize to his love of his life forgive me father he is asking for his father to forgive him and i love you mother he is telling his mom he loves her

Song MeaningWell, this is what I think.
At beggining, he want to say it is impossible to feel his heart - as impossible as hearing the silence or seeing the dark.
He is begging for a savior and also he apologiez his family - I think he basically thinks about all the bad stuff he have done and because of that, he begins to feel like completely bad person. He have no idea what to do with that feeling, as he is not able to control it. He simply feels hopeless.
He wants to find new friends, he want new beggining but he is too scared to even try.
He wish to delete his feeling, I guess many teenagers want this too sometimes.
Again he feels hopeless, like a bad person, it is impossible to drown his demons.
Sometimes something good happens but after that his situation only get worse and worse and he doesnt know what to do.
I might be wrong but this is what it means to me.

General CommentEverything Oliver writes about, is about the most powerful thing that has happened to him. Addiction! Addiction in any form change totally change the way a person lives. It also hurts many of the people we have around us also. But it is easier kept in check by those same people.

Quote Movie: Contact

Alien: You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.